Management Improvement Carnival: 2012 Edition

This is the third consecutive year when I am hosting the Annual Management Improvement Carnival organized by John Hunter. Hosting this carnival is an opportunity for me to thank a few generous folks who extended significant learning and influenced me through their writing.

This year, I review three blogs that I have loved reading.

Seth Godin’s Blog

If there is one person on blogosphere who has influenced me the most (through his words and deeds), that person is Seth Godin. I reviewed Seth’s blog last year as well apart from doing “one-question interview and review” for his books “Linchpin” and “Poke the Box”. This time around, I will point you to 5 best posts and snippets written by Seth in 2012:

1. Who Cares?: “Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money.”
2. Can I see your body of work?: “Are you leaving behind an easily found trail of accomplishment? Few people are interested in your resume any more. Plenty are interested in what you’ve done.”
3. Perfect and Impossible: “If you are in love with the perfect, prepare to see it swept away. If you are able to dream of the impossible, it just might happen.”
4. If your happiness is based on always getting a little more than you’ve got…: “An alternative is to be happy wherever you are, with whatever you’ve got, but always hungry for the thrill of creating art, of being missed if you’re gone and most of all, doing important work.”
5. Don’t expect applause: “If your work is filled with the hope and longing for applause, it’s no longer your work–the dependence on approval has corrupted it, turned it into a process where you are striving for ever more approval.”

Jamie Flinchbaugh

Jamie Flinchbaugh writes on lean, transformational leadership and entrepreneurial excellence. His blog offers very useful perspectives and insights on leading an effective enterprise. Here are 3 posts and snippets that I enjoyed reading so far, and you will too:

1. Standard work is not a replacement for skill and knowledge: “Standard work is not a replacement for skill and knowledge, it’s purpose to enable skill and knowledge to be applied consistently and effectively. Most work cannot be done by robots; it is done by people. And so standard work must be designed for our needs, as an aid, not a crutch nor a hindrance.”
2. 4 myths about the principle of “Respect for People”: “Conflict leads to resolution. Conflict leads to new understanding. Conflict, when managed properly, brings people together.”
3. The failure of “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions!”: “I believe one of the utmost hallmarks of a lean organization is that someone can talk very openly about the problems which they have no idea how to solve yet.”

Sharlyn Lauby’s HR Bartender

Sharlyn Lauby runs a very popular HR blog and loves to call herself “HR Bartender”. However, her blog focuses on topics that relate to the workplace, not just human resources. 3 posts and snippets from HR Bartender that I enjoyed reading the most are:

1. Your Company’s Next Innovation Will Be the Result of Empathy: “Then comes the hard part. It’s tough to take the conversation and turn it into practice. We can talk about empathy but how many of us can really demonstrate it?”
2. Projects Are the New Job Interview: “The things we take on, the projects we agree to be a part of, define us. Because people are watching. They are paying attention to what we do. We may or may not even know it. And guess what? Maybe we’re being “interviewed” all along and don’t even realize it.”
3. 5 Qualities of Professional People: “Part of gaining respect is being able to say “I don’t know.” Be the best you can at what you do and don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something.”

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Related Posts:

1. People Focus – 2010 Management Improvement Carnival
2. Annual Management Improvement Carnival: Edition 1 (2011)
3. Annual Management Improvement Carnival: Edition 2 (2011)

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